Democrats Reward New Leader For Loyalty

Hoyer now must get along with rival speaker

November 17, 2006|By Kate Zernike The New York Times

WASHINGTON — If you placed an order for a congressman, chances are you would get Steny Hoyer. There is the immovable silver hair and the gleaming smile, the assiduous courting of colleagues, supporters, and lobbyists, even the requisite life-changing encounter with John F. Kennedy.

In his early political career in Maryland, Hoyer was known as a machine politician. Here, he is "the members' member." It is a label applied by his champions, who admire him as an institutionalist, as well as his detractors, who sneer at him as a pol. But both agreed on Thursday that this quality allowed him to become majority leader of the new Democratic-led House.

The biggest test of Hoyer's political skills comes now, as he tries to lead a caucus under a new speaker, Nancy Pelosi, who has long been his rival in leadership and who strongly supported his opponent.

Hoyer, 67, has been running for some sort of political office since his 20s, when he worked alongside a young Nancy D'Alesandro -- later Nancy Pelosi -- for Daniel Brewster, a Democratic U.S. senator from Maryland. Hoyer later entered the state Senate, becoming at 35 the youngest Senate president in Maryland history.

During the past several election cycles, he has campaigned early for Democratic challengers, earning loyalty that ultimately paid off in the leadership election. Many freshmen legislators said they respected the stand his rival, Rep. John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, had taken opposing the Iraq war, but that they had committed to Hoyer early, as he had to them.

"He was out for me before anyone thought I had a race," said Chris Murphy, a Democrat who won a tough campaign in Connecticut.

Hoyer entered Congress by winning a special election to replace Rep. Gladys Spellman, who fell into a coma in 1980.

By the early 1990s, Hoyer had become his party's caucus chairman. But when he ran for whip in 1991, he lost. Supporters of his opponent, David E. Bonior, said that Hoyer was too much of an upstart.

He continued to press for a position in the leadership, competing against Pelosi for whip in 2001. He lost, again. Hoyer says that he has moved on, but the campaign has left lingering tensions in their relationship.

Friends say Hoyer has been frustrated by his inability to get past the tension with Pelosi. Associates have tried to reach out and patch the relationship between the two.

On Thursday, even after Pelosi supported Murtha, Hoyer spoke of his three daughters, his granddaughters and a new great-granddaughter, and how proud they would be to have Pelosi as the first female speaker.

He and Pelosi smiled and grasped hands, then lifted their arms over their heads triumphantly.